Category: Hazing News

From the Daily Texan:

Home > Top Stories
8/24/07
Hazing linked to Cross death?
County Attorney’s Office seeks online documents after witness’ testimony

By M.T. Elliott

A search warrant filed by the Travis County Attorney’s Office reveals the county is investigating hazing in connection with the 2006 falling death of a UT fraternity member.

The county attorney’s office filed the warrant to retrieve documents from Google Inc. for details of a user group created for Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges. The Internet company turned over a CD containing more than 500 pages of content from the pledge group’s site.

Tyler Cross, an 18-year-old Georgia native, died on Nov. 17, 2006, after falling from the fifth-story balcony of his West 24th Street apartment. Cross was part of the fall 2006 pledge class of the fraternity his freshman year.

According to the warrant, one pledge informed investigators that pledges for Sigma Alpha Epsilon were told the two most important rules were “don’t talk about pledgeship” and “don’t die.”

The warrant cites details provided by eight pledge class members, alleging that they and Cross were not only physically hazed, but given alcohol at a fraternity function the night Cross died. The county medical examiner reported Cross had a blood alcohol level of .19 when he died. The warrant also cited findings in the autopsy report regarding “bruising on [Cross’] buttocks that were inconsistent with falling from a balcony.”

The SAE house is roughly one block north of Cross’ apartment.

Multiple pledges said Cross and other pledges were struck with bamboo and supplied with large amounts of alcohol by active members of the fraternity. Bamboo is prominently featured in the “jungle” themed parties held by SAE chapters at the end of their pledge period.

Previous interviews indicated Cross had assisted in building structures for that party the night he died. After Cross’ death, the fraternity subsequently canceled that weekend’s events.

Members of the pledge class and the current SAE president did not answer phone calls or declined to comment Thursday. The investigation is ongoing.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is also investigating the role alcohol had in the events that night.

The Office of the Dean of Students refers all comments regarding Sigma Alpha Epsilon to Don Hale, vice president for public affairs. Hale did not return a phone call before press time.

Earlier this month, UT President William Powers said that the University was conducting a “very active investigation,” but could not comment further.

Tim Samp, risk management director for the fraternity’s national chapter, said they would await the University’s investigation before taking any action of their own. In previous interviews Stamp said they viewed the incident as an accident but unrelated to the chapter.

Courant.com
9-Month Sentence In Hazing

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY

Courant Staff Writer

August 24, 2007

MANCHESTER
Click here to find out more!

Silvester Baez had everything going for him.

The son of a single mom, the Bronx, N.Y., teenager studied hard, got good grades and was accepted into a program for gifted minority students, A Better Chance in Glastonbury, known as ABC. There, in a wealthy, suburban Connecticut town, Baez interned with a prestigious architectural firm and served as a student representative on the board of education.

On Thursday, the distraught 17-year-old was sentenced to nine months in prison in Superior Court in Manchester and then led away by a judicial marshal to a court holding cell as more than a dozen of his family members and friends looked on, some wailing. A felony assault conviction will now forever stain his record.

Baez was one of four upperclassmen at the program arrested last year on charges that they abused freshmen as part of an ongoing hazing ritual that included slapping, kicking and beatings with pingpong paddles. Some of the abuse was sexual, police and prosecutors say, although the sexual assault-related charge against Baez was dropped as part of a plea agreement. Baez, and the two upperclassmen who authorities say played the most active roles in attacking the three freshmen, pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree assault in June.

Under a plea deal, nine months was the least prison time Baez could get. Still, his attorney, Dale Roberson, pressed Judge Raymond Norko not to send his client away.

It would be “a miscarriage of justice” to allow a felony conviction to follow Baez the rest of his life, Roberson argued. He pointed out that Baez had earned a full scholarship to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he already earned grades of A in in two courses this summer.

Roberson decried what he said was a lack of proper supervision at the ABC home, and even compared the environment there to the deserted island in William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies,” where unsupervised children spiral into a life of savagery. Although the dorm-like home had supervisors, Roberson said, they ignored the hazing problem for years. Baez himself was hazed, he and Baez said.

Neatly dressed in a dark-colored suit, Baez addressed the court before he was sentenced: “I know that what I did was wrong, just as my attorney stated. … They just want to make an example out of me, that’s how I feel.”

Prosecutor Lisa Herskowitz said she didn’t hear Baez express any remorse for what he did to the 13-year-old victim who sufferedthe most abuse. “Maybe, after years of counseling, he’ll be able to pull himself out of the hell these kids have put him through. …He’s in his own kind of prison.”

The abuse Baez said he endured as a freshman – which included being slapped and having paint thrown on him – was minor in comparison, Herskowitz said.

One of the victim’s mothers traveled from New York City, as did Baez’s family, to attend the sentencing. She looked at Norko when she spoke but talked to Baez.

“You sit there and you look all fancy in your suit,” she said. “You look so innocent.”

But she said he urinated on her child, chased him into other people’s backyards and stacked books on him.

“I just wanted to see if you all are really human,” she said.

Norko agreed with Roberson that supervision was lacking at the facility, but he noted that the supervisors “are not before this court, these children are.”

He gave Baez a sentence of five years in prison, suspended after nine months, followed by five years of probation.

Contact Christine Dempsey at cdempsey@courant.com.

_____________________

Previous story:

Courant.com
Teen Gets Jail For Hazing Incident

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY

The Hartford Courant

5:03 PM EDT, August 23, 2007

MANCHESTER

A former upperclassman in a Glastonbury program for out-of-state, gifted minority teens was sentenced to nine months in prison today for brutalizing freshmen during an ongoing hazing ritual.

Silvester Baez, 17, of the Bronx, was sentenced to five years in prison, suspended after nine months, followed by five years of probation, despite a plea from his lawyer for no jail time. The sentencing took place in Superior Court in Manchester.

In June, Baez was one of three teens who pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree assault. No contest means he will not fight the charge, although he doesn’t admit guilt. He is the first of the three — who also include Jeff Utobor and Pedro Reyes — to be sentenced.

A fourth teen, Christopher Lewis, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in March and was given probation. He played a lesser role in the attacks, said prosecutor Lisa Herskowitz.

At the time of the assaults, the three teenagers lived at a home in Glastonbury and attended the local high school through the program, called A Better Chance. In all, four upperclassmen were accused of abusing three freshmen in the home.

The victims were ordered to do push-ups and to fight each other, police said. The freshmen were slapped, punched, kicked and hit with pingpong paddles, according to an arrest warrant.

Baez was one of two upperclassmen who held down a victim while a third inserted a pen in one freshman’s anus, police and prosecutors said. A charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault and other charges were not prosecuted.

Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant

Thanks to Marc for this headsup.

A San Diego drill instructor accused of abusing recruits could face a sentence of nearly 270 years in prison if he’s convicted on all charges leveled against him, it was reported Thursday.

Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass postponed entering a plea Wednesday at San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot, where he was arraigned on 244 counts of abusing recruits. He also delayed his request to have a trial by judge or jury, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Glass is accused of striking almost every member of his 60-man platoon — some repeatedly — during a monthlong rampage between mid-January and mid-February of this year, the Union-Tribune reported.

The charges include 91 specifications of assault, 89 of failure to obey orders and 47 of cruelty and maltreatment, the newspaper reported.

If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to 269 years in prison, according to the newspaper.

Some of the alleged abuses resemble fraternity pranks, such as forcing a recruit to jump into a trash can, while others suggest stern physical punishment, the Union-Tribune reported.

Glass had worked as a drill sergeant for less than a year when the alleged mistreatment took place. No member of his platoon was seriously injured, but at least four ran away from duty, the newspaper reported.

Four officers who oversaw Glass at the time have been relieved of duty. In addition, at least two other drill instructors have been charged and are expected to be arraigned next month. If convicted, they could face a maximum sentence of one year in the brig, according to the Union-Tribune.

Glass’ court-martial is tentatively set for Nov. 8 to Nov. 21, the newspaper reported.

Link
By CINDY STAUFFER, Staff
Lancaster New Era

Published: Aug 23, 2007 11:27 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. – Millersville University is investigating possible hazing by its women’s lacrosse team, after photos of what appear to be a team drinking party were posted on a national anti-hazing Web site.

The 16 photos, on www.ncaahazing.com, apparently first were posted on an online photo-sharing Web site by a member of the team.

They show young women apparently drinking shots while wearing men’s underwear on their heads. Other photos show women drinking from what look like beer cans, which are duct-taped to their hands.

The players’ names and faces correspond to a team’s roster posted on the university’s Web site, ncaahazing.com noted. The team’s coach confirmed today that the photos show some of the team.

The anti-hazing site blacked out the player’s faces to conceal their identities.

“There’s a formal process under way,” Millersville University athletic director Peg Kauffman said today, referring to the university’s investigation.” There will be conversations with members of the lacrosse team and the coach.”

Kauffman said Millersville does not approve any hazing behavior.

“Behavior of anything of this nature is not something that we’re about at Millersville,” she said. “It’s not something we will condone.”

Lacrosse coach Barbara Waltman said she was not aware of the party and only recently learned of the photos, stamp-dated Feb 3, 2006, and Feb. 3, 2007.

“When I got the call from Peg, I was flabbergasted,” Waltman said. “It’s unfortunately not good decision-making.”

She added, “Obviously I’m disappointed in the judgment of my players. It’s behavior I do not condone and that is not acceptable.”

She said she has not spoken to players. Students are starting to return to campus, where classes start Monday.

“Hopefully we will sort things through and proper attention will be taken with the parties involved,” she said.

Attempts to contact several of the team members were not successful.

Millersville’s student conduct code notes that any student or student organization can be subject to disciplinary sanctions if they engage in hazing.

The code prohibits “hazing or harassing another person for the purpose of initiation or maintaining group affiliation. Hazing is defined as any action which endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student, with or without his/her consent, or causes discomfort, embarrassment or ridicule.”

One photo shows a dry-erase board with the note “have fun with the rookies” written on it.

Photos show a woman apparently getting sick in a trash can and another one drinking from a bucket. Some of the girls’ faces have make-up scrawled on them and their hair is put up with tampons, used as curlers.

The ncaahazing.com Web site calls on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to enact anti-hazing legislation to protect student athletes from dangerous activities.

It posts photos and videos of alleged hazing activities at other universities across the country.

Web site spokesman William Schut said today that the site does not determine whether the activities are hazing.

“We just pass them along and let the school investigate,” he said.

A Millersville University student recently filed a federal lawsuit against the school, saying it refused to award her a teaching certificate and education degree after an online photo showed her drinking from a cup under the caption “Drunken Pirate.”

The student, Stacy Snyder, 27, said university officials confronted her about the photo the day before graduation and told her she wouldn’t be receiving her degree or certificate because the photo was “unprofessional.”

A university attorney has said that all of “educational decisions are based on a full range of academic performance issues, not solely on a student’s personal Web site or social networking site.”

Snyder’s case is still pending.